Smuggler’s Run was a moderate success in the Playstation 2 launch, a time when gamers starved for good games were willing to take a gamble in the hopes it would be OK. It was actually quite good, and thanks to nice sales last year saw the release of the sequel, Smuggler’s Run 2. Rockstar has delivered some hefty exclusives to other consoles (Grand Theft Auto III for the PS2 being the big one of course), so it seems only fair that the Gamecube should get one for its own. Smuggler’s Run: Warzones is an extension of the same gameplay but with a few tweaks and a whole plethora of new levels and modes to keep folks interested. And if you found yourself liking the Smuggler’s Run franchise, then this is a must buy.

For those unfamiliar with the concept of Smuggler’s Run, think of ATV Offroad racing, with the buggies and sandy, hostile terrain. You are a tough-as-nails smuggler, taking packages across DMZ zones around the world. You’ll travel to multiple countries and assist military and liberation factions, all in the name of the mighty dollar. So you get on a buggy, now add planes dropping shipments for you to pick up and drop off to designated drop off zones, police chasing you and rival gangs trying to get to the packages before you. The racing aspect is handled much like an ATV game, with big air and proper physics for rollovers and speed. There are many different cars in the game and each has a very specific handling, even though the stats may be misleading. The Del Monte car has a ‘10/10’ in speed, but I only noticed a very marginal difference between that and other middleweight cars. The cars/buggys interact with each other very realistically, if you’re a big SUV-type buggy plowing into a smaller one, you’ll go over the car like a monster truck, inflicting damage and perhaps even stealing a package. The sense of speed is well handled, and even the drifting aspect (probably the most frustrating thing about handling a buggy like this) is handled well. The controls are intuitive and easy to pickup, and everything fits together very nicely… you have a feeling playing Warzones that this is the very best Smuggler’s Run they could offer, all features are there and there are no big issues with control.

Quite possibly Smuggler’s Run biggest claim to fame since the beginning has been gigantic levels, completely drivable (even if it causes you to lose the mission). In ‘Joyride’ mode, you get a sense for just how vast and completely boggling even smaller levels are, since you are normally too busy speeding to a package to take scenic detours or anything like that. It’s not just flat terrain either, there are big dunes to jump, rivers to splash through and giant mountains to climb up. It’s a varied and interesting array of landscapes, giving each new mission a feeling of freshness. Speaking of missions, they are mostly good… but the bad parts of the Smuggler’s Run: Warzones experience pop up here. The missions designed around fast paced driving to smuggle packages to a destination, evading the cops or the army, or intercepting packages are all fun… and they do make up the majority of the missions. But the ones where you are forced to use computer-controlled teammates (a new feature not seen in Smuggler’s Run 2 that I can remember) usually go to pieces quite fast. Quite simply, your teammates are stupid, and it would be easier to go up against the computer yourself rather then have the AI try to help you. They only hinder their missions, usually getting packages stolen from them with the greatest of ease and being generally useless. This is where the high frustration level lies, and the game for that mission becomes momentarily not fun. Luckily these missions are much fewer then the dominant racing and smuggling missions, which remain fun and exciting.

There are many, many missions spread over many campaigns, and the game makes the wise choice of constantly rewarding you with unlocked cars, levels, weapons and more to keep you playing. The amount of levels (175) can seem daunting at first, but it’s important to remember most missions take under a minute and a half to complete, although some can take around five minutes. It depends on the particular mission, but even if you averaged out at two and a half minutes per mission, it would still be a boatload of time spent on the single player (seven and a half hours), and that’s definitely much shorter then what it even began to take me… maybe I’m a slow player. Still, the gameplay, with the exception of the horrid teammate missions, is silky smooth and delicious.

The graphics of course spend a lot of effort showing off the levels, their grand scope and dynamic terrain. What they don’t evidently spend much time on are the level’s environment object themselves, things like bushes and trees look ‘all right’ but not nearly as nice as some of the other things in the levels. The water effects are pretty neat, not very complex but the physics are solid and the little water wake is there. The frame-rate is rock solid, and the all the levels size is of course gigantic, even if it doesn’t need to be. The textures are slightly disappointing though, as the ground on the levels basically looks the same, the only changes being in tree placement, rivers, and elevation. Since they’re so huge though, I can’t complain. Perhaps the least impressive thing would be the car models… they react nicely, bouncing around and twisting realistically, but the textures of the buggies are flat and uninspired. I would’ve loved to see shimmering metal, but I suppose that comes out of the cost of a high frame-rate.

Smuggler’s Run: Warzones has some pretty generic techno as background music, and although there are an abundance of tracks, it hurts that there aren’t a lot of different genres encompassed in the overall sound. For the most part, it’s techno/rock, and rather bland at that. You won’t remember this music after you turn the game off, but it’s upbeat enough to serve its purpose. The sound effects are handled nicely, involving police yelling, roaring/sputtering engines and plenty of great crash and explosion noises. It won’t be the type of sound to knock you into your seat, but given that the rest of the game is so good this is very excusable, and since it serves its purpose of kicking the energy level up I don’t think I can complain too much.

Perhaps the best part of Warzones is the vast amount of things to do, this definitely would be a keeper over a rental based purely on how long you’ll be playing it. The single player game is big, not necessarily long (shorter then 10 hours), but simply intimidating in the number of levels and things to unlock. The game rewards skill, so you might need to try some missions over if only to get a high score to unlock something. There are several single player modes too, the Campaign/Mission mode which is where the bulk of the action is, and the ‘Joyride’ mode for just exploring the giant levels they’ve laid out for you. You can unlock things here too, adding to more replay and incentive to keep going… The real master of replay though is the multiplayer modes, and in terms of car combat games I think Smuggler’s Run: Warzones beats even Twisted Metal: Black as the top of the heap. It’s fun… it’s frantic, and at four players it quite simply can’t be beat for a good time. One problem though… the computer gets involved too. On the Racing/Circuit mode it’s no big deal, but then again that’s racing and my friends and I rarely go for that over complete and utter destruction. For the destructive side, there are a few different modes… all of which are a play on the ‘take package, deliver to base’ formula that worked well… only now you are apparently forced to take computer sidekicks, just like the missions. The only difference being now you know your friends are having the same problems, so everything is even. Seeing such easy and open targets often gets the blood and cursing flowing, and before you know it, the match has turned into one of the most competitive ever. It’s fun, it’s addictive, it helps to sell the game. So with all the other fun stuff, if you already have money stowed away for Mario Sunshine then this would be a great choice for a definite rental, or even a wise purchase.

It’s not often the Gamecube gets an exclusive they can brag about, but other then the older Smuggler Run games on the PS2, there’s nothing that quite matches up in quality to what Warzones lays down as a car combat/racing game. It’s more fun then Twisted Metal: Black, although it doesn’t quite measure up in greatness overall to other truly great, must have games. It would be a good purchase, and a DEFINITE rental if you’re looking for some four player mayhem… If you don’t have a Smuggler’s Run game in your collection yet, you might as well pick up Warzones.